punctum
1
9.9
- noun
- /ˈpʌŋktəm/
- Specialized
- During the examination, the doctor pointed out a small red spot, which he called a punctum, on the patient's skin.
Examples
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You can do so, $15 for the book + $3.50 for shipping to: punctum books c/o Eileen Joy, 3328 Bishop Street, Cincinnati, OH 45220, and include your mailing address.
Blog text (8) -
The wound left a tiny punctum on the surface, indicating where the injury had occurred.
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But the punctum is: he is going to die.
Academic text (1995) -
Fig. 3: Thomas Meyer's Beowulf, available from punctum books.
Blog text (26) -
They become disturbances within the picture frame, though not in the Barthesian sense of the punctum.
Academic text (2010) -
The flowered dress and the pastoral mural have something in common: is the nature in the unnatural the punctum?
Blog text (29) -
For Foster, this lack is the punctum that locates the trauma of the image, more so than the horrible image of the crash or Warhol's repetition of that image.
Academic text (2000) -
Perhaps pain is like this frantic bubble, trying to push out of the photo via a Barthian punctum, yet finding its level always cruelly replenished, its impossible economy never reduced.
Blog text (29) -
Dilation sometimes effects a cure by releasing mucous plugs or concretions in the lacrimal drainage pathway, and it occasionally provides temporary relief in cases of stenosis of the punctum.
Academic text (2009) -
In his painting, the artist used a brilliant color as a punctum to draw the viewer's attention.
Compounds
- Jargon
1
9.9
A striking moment that changes a work's meaning, often in art, photography, or argument
How Small
Surface Forms
Etymology
The word punctum comes from the Latin word pungere, which means 'to prick'. Think of a tiny pinprick or small dot — the same root is in puncture — and that image explains why punctum means a very small point or spot in the body.